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My wife recently decided that I wanted shutters over the windows, a bay, and 2 windows in the lounge, one in the dining room and one in the bathroom. It's funny how she often decides what I want, it must have been a sub-clause in the wedding vows....

We looked at two companies, Hilarys blinds - http://www.hillarys.co.uk/ and The Shutter Shop www.shutter-shop.co.uk.

Hilarys came first, we had done a little research into the product and decided that we wanted a split on the main window of the bay, and a single panel in each of the wings of the bay. (sorry for the non technical language, can we do pumps? I can do technical lanuguage in pumps).

Hillarys quoted £3150 for the job, after an hour and a half, and thankfully no calls to his manager. We were a little dissapointed with the product, it seems to have been put together on a budget, and with white plastic over the wood, as opposed to paint. We asked where the shutter was made, to be told that all shutters in the UK originate in the Far East.

Next we brought in the shutter shop, the product was far more substantial, as was the cost £4830, but was made with solid wood, and they had a much nicer method of fitting it into the bay, using a circular pole to join the panels at the angles. He pointed out that a lot of the budget far eastern shutters are made out of LDF a lightweight version of MDF.

We couldn't however justify the increase in cost, and I decided to go with Hillarys, my wife however preffered the far more substantial look of the shutter shop version, and pointed out I was obviously confused. So she changed my mind, we asked for a £200 discount if we signed up there and then with the shutter shop . We managed to get a great finance deal on them, and are going to pay it off in about 7 months.

At the end of the day, we are so happy we went with the shutter shop, job looks amazing, and the same person who measured up the windows, fitted them. The sales guy doesn't fit as it's far too technical.

We ended up with a five year guarantee, and what's best is that the shutters look like they've always been there, not like brand new shutters. We love the way we can adjust the light, and the fact that the stick to control the vanes doesn't go all over the centre of the slats.

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